Add to all of this the fact that you can actually use this device as a voice recorder and things just go from good to great. The microphone is a small slit located near the top of the player and it records quite well considering everything else it does. We would suggest that you make sure the microphone is quite near to the sound source though or you will pick up a lot of static. This is not an essential additive to what is predominantly an MP3 player but it is a nice addition that is a lot of fun to play with.
The biggest difficulties we had with this player were not so much design flaws as simply getting use to the player itself. First off, when you plug in your earphones, make sure they are plugged all the way in. We spent 10 minutes trying to determine if the earphones were defective or if it was the player when we kept getting choppy sound. It turned out that you really have to push quite hard in order to make sure everything is connected correctly. A good rule of thumb is that if you can see any gold from the plug, it’s not in far enough. The second problem we seem to have is convincing the player to turn on. It is necessary to hold the power/play button for a second or two before it will turn on. Hold it too long and it will turn itself off again. Truth is that’s more of a problem with the person testing the device than with the device itself.
Long story short. What do we think of this MP3 player? Well, having owned a fair number of players over the years this one is our new favourite. It does everything we would want a player to do without giving us any of the headaches associated with confusing design or shoddy workmanship. X-Micro may be new to the game of MP3 players but they have really raised the bar in what a buyer should expect. In our opinion, this is the best bang for the buck out there at the moment and we can’t wait to see what X-Micro has in store for the future.
Pros:
• Intuitive design
• Brightly lit display
• Built-in USB port
• Nice sounding earphones
• Built in voice recorder
• Hold button
Cons:
• FM radio receiver has no volume control or channel selection
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